God doesn’t give us children when we are old and wise and mature, but when we are young and ignorant and need to grow. In other words, he gives us children in the middle of the sanctification process; and our children, in turn, become a significant means of producing growth in our lives.”

One of the most common mistakes I noticed as a church consultant was the lack of directional signage in churches. It’s as if churches expected people who had never been in their building to know exactly where to go on their first visit. Obviously this is a problem. Art shares four reason why your church should not only have directional signage, but good directional signage.

Did you know that the average American reads only one book a year? Worse than this is the fact that 60 percent of average Americans only get through the first chapter. Contrast this with the fact that CEOs of Fortune 500 companies read an average of four to five books a month. Even more impressive is that some of the most successful leaders throughout history were known to read one book every single day. Bottom line: If you’re a leader and not an avid reader, you’re wrong.

If the statistics in the opening paragraph didn’t convince you of the power of reading, here are a few more telling observations for your consideration—according to our surveys at N2growth, a very large common denominator shared by executives who feel that they are not achieving the level of success they feel capable of, is that many of them are “too busy to keep up with their reading.” Hmmm. . . . Furthermore, studies show that active readers are likely to have annual incomes more than five times greater than those who spend little or no time reading. Do I have your attention yet?

Up until a few years ago, Rick Warren read a book every single day. Abraham Lincoln, who only had one year of formal education, credited his appetite for reading with his success. Teddy Roosevelt was rumored to actually read two books a day. Thomas Jefferson had one of the most exhaustive personal libraries of his time prior to donating it to the Library of Congress (which many joked Roosevelt had read). If not clear yet, the theme here is that in order to be a great leader, you absolutely must be a great reader.

There is no growth without change. And there is no change without loss. And there is no loss without pain. A church that wants to grow without going through growing pains is like a woman who says, “I want to have a baby but I don’t want to go through labor.” Is the pain worth it? Yes, it’s worth it. People need the Lord and as long as one person doesn’t know Christ we have to keep reaching out. As your church begins to grow you’re going to face a lot of different criticisms. But there are three really common ones to prepare for starting with these three.

Here’s my concern: are we being honest enough with others to let them bear our burdens? Or does outward silence indicate inward boasting? When burden-bearing only goes one way, it ceases to be burden-sharing. Inevitably, we will fail to carry this weight on our own. I believe my friend succumbed to this temptation. But I didn’t realize it happened to me, too.

The 31 Day Purity Challenge will be similar to the other prayer challenges. I’ve written about half of them and Tim has written the other half. We will also have a few guest posts (from some people that you might know). Each day we’ll have a scripture passage, a short devotional, and then a prayer. Tim and I will post them on our respective sites and they’ll also be posted to our Facebook group.

This group, though, is different than the others. We are encouraging you to commit to 31 days of detox as well. This challenge will actually benefit you more if you can find a group of guys at your church to do this together. But we also have the Facebook group to assist in this. As we are praying we are also committing to aggressively pursuing purity in our lives.

A text message came in from a pastor friend. I’ve known him for decades. He is the kind of man for whom the adjective “saintly” was invented. He pastored a thriving church for many years. Then someone on staff stabbed him in the back and rallied others to get him thrown out. The objections to his ministry had no substance. “The issues” were not the real issues. As Moishe Rosen, founder of Jews for Jesus, said to me once, “Some try to pull down a prominent man, not because they themselves wish to take his place, but because doing so gives them a feeling of power.” My friend had met with someone from his former church, wishing to reconcile. But the person blew him off. All that the meeting accomplished was to re-open an old wound. So here is what I want to say to my friend: You’re not crazy. This has been happening to God’s men since Cain and Abel. It is one way you identify with Jesus himself.